The present invention relates to package design and more specifically to systems for designing and creating a comprehensive model of a package.
Some of the subject matter herein is disclosed and claimed in the following U.S. patent application, which is incorporated herein by reference:
U.S. Patent Application entitled xe2x80x9cMETHOD FOR MAKING EMBOSSED PACKAGES AND OTHER ARTICLES FROM SHEET MATERIALS, BLANKS MADE THEREBY, AND SHEET MATERIALS FOR USE THEREWITHxe2x80x9d, filed on Mar. 27, 2000.
Virtually all consumer products are sold in packages, such as cardboard cartons, boxes, bags and other types containers. A package has two very distinguishing features: a structural design and a graphical design. The structural design of a package is defined by the package""s structural features, such as the dimensions, geometric shape and work material of the package. The graphical design of a package is defined by the colors, artwork and other images applied thereto. The graphical design preferably identifies the packaged product in a manner which is aesthetically appealing to potential consumers.
A package is typically formed from a sheet of corrugated board, carton board, or other work material upon which a graphical design is applied. The graphical design may be applied by many known processes. For example, the package may be printed with an ink-jet printing device or a vinyl sheet having a design may be laminated to the package. Many packages are printed lithographically, while still others are printed with flexographic or rotogravure techniques. Small-format, high-value-added folding cartons often include hot stamped metallic foils and/or embossed designs.
The applied graphical design may be simple, such as those created with normally printed ink or vinyl, or more complex, such as prismatic or holographic images. Flexible packages such as bags and wrappers may incorporate holographic, pearlescent or prismatic effects even for inexpensive packaged goods such as toys and candy. Many packages furthermore require special colors, and roughly two-thirds of all packages require spot color, typically a Pantone color. Although only about a third of packages require process-color photographic images, dot-based patterns are commonly used for vignettes.
Finishing operations such as cutting and creasing transform the sheet of work material into a package having a desired structural design. Cutting and creasing corrugated and folding cartons is an expensive process which necessitates the production of steel rule dies, counter-cutters and other tools. Further operations may add additional features to the package, such as operations which add embossing, labels, stickers, windows or blister packs. These additional operations increase the cost of producing the package.
Although there are numerous types of packages in existence today, new packages are constantly being designed and created. The great demand for new packages is due in part to common activities such as launching new products, re-launching an existing product, providing an existing product with a new identity, introducing new sizes of an existing product or extending a range of a product line. Further demand for new packages arises from the desire to reduce the costs of existing packages. Finally, many companies are aiming at increasingly smaller market niches, a marketing strategy which requires more careful product development and marketing, and thus more specialized packages.
Designing a package is a precise process requiring consideration of competing goals: aesthetic appeal and minimal cost. The most appealing package design may be prohibitively expensive, perhaps even more expensive than the product to be packaged. Several parties must collaborate closely in order to-design a desired package which is both inexpensive to produce and appealing to potential customers. Parties who are involved in the design of a package include Print Buyers, Graphic Designers, Separators and Converters.
A Print Buyer is the party who desires a package. The typical Print Buyer is a consumer goods company which requires a package to contain and promote its product. The Print Buyer (and/or their advertising agency or marketing consultant) define the desired xe2x80x9cmessagexe2x80x9d, and thus the preferred xe2x80x9cimagexe2x80x9d, of the packaged product. This message serves as a broad package design specification.
A Graphic Designer is a specialist in the field of artistic design who is charged with creating the graphical design for the package and refining the packaged product""s image. The Graphic Designer is hired directly by the Print Buyer or indirectly by an agent of the Print Buyer, such as an independent design firm dedicated to package design. The Graphic Designer creates the graphical design in the form of computer-based images and printed or digital color specifications.
A Separator, typically a trade shop or commercial printer, provides production-ready, color-separated films by combining images, text, and layout specifications provided by the Graphic Designer. The films are used in printing the graphical design on produced packages. Once the Separator has provided these films, a Converter prints and die-cuts the final package. Many Converters produce their own printing plates and die-cutting plates, including nesting and sample-cutting plates. Other Converters outsource these services to tool-shops.
Unfortunately, the parties who must collaborate typically do not have a thorough understanding of the tasks of the other parties. This greatly complicates the process of designing a package, driving up costs and total design time. As may be. seen from the description provided hereinafter, the conventional package design process is slow and repetitive. The process of designing a package is even more time-consuming and costly if collaboration between the parties is weak.
Prior art systems for designing a package start with the desires of the Pint Buyer. Since the Print Buyer is almost always a company, rather than an individual, the step of establishing desirable package features involves coopertion among many departments, such as product purchasing, quality control, merchandising, retail marketing, distribution, and legal counsel. Once the Print Buyer establishes desirable package features, the Print Buyer""s package specialist and package buyer produce a Package Design Brief based on these features.
Generally, the Package Design Brief is a set of goals for guiding the Graphic Designer in creating the graphic design of the package. The Package Design Brief generally provides the following information:
the underlying objective of the packaged product;
the product type, such as a major design project (e.g., launching a new product), a line extension (e.g., introducing a new size or adding to the product range) or a minor image modification (e.g., re-launching the same product);
any special requirements (e.g., legislation or regulations covering the subject. product or package, environmental considerations, any preferred colors or package considerations, space and display requirements, number of options, chemical, physical and distribution requirements, and special promotional requirements);
essential copy information to be included (e.g., brand name, product names, size, capacity or weight, unique selling points, care and use instructions, any legal copy required and appropriate recycling symbol); and
a brief review of the competition in order to provide such information as other types of packages and accepted colors.
In certain circumstances, the Package Design Brief is intentionally drafted broadly to afford greater latitude to the Graphic Designer. In such a case, the Print Buyer effectively leaves control of major marketing decisions to an outside agency. However, the Print Buyer may want the Graphic. Designer, who probably has more experience in package design, to assume greater responsibility for managing the package design process.
Once a Package Design Brief is drafted and approved, the Print Buyer considers different options for the package""s structural design. Such factors as the estimated quantities, retail price, development budget and launch date of the packaged product are taken into account in determining a final structural design. Further considerations in selecting a structural design are whether material will be efficiently utilized, since packages will eventually be produced in large numbers on a printing press and a die-cutting press.
Even after both a desired graphical design and a desired structural design are selected, final production of the packages is not yet appropriate. The desired graphical design and structural design which the Print Buyer selects may dictate a package which is prohibitively expensive or even impossible to produce. Other types of incompatibilities between the desired graphical design and the desired structural design may exist as well. To determine if the desired graphical and structural designs are sound, the Print Buyer must receive feedback from the other parties in the design process who are more knowledgeable in their own specialties.
To facilitate the process of providing feedback and approval of package designs, the parties in the design process exchange physical samples which embody the package design. These samples, known as comprehensives or xe2x80x9ccompsxe2x80x9d, are three-dimensional models of the proposed package with a graphical design applied thereto. The comps provide a realistic, concrete medium for visualizing, communicating and evaluating interrelated graphical and structural implications of a proposed package design. Throughout the entire package development process, comments, revisions and ultimately approvals are provided with reference to the comps. These comments, revisions and approvals are reduced to writing and maintained in forms and folders of the various parties.
Comps are prepared by the Graphic Designer based on structural templates. The structural templates are typically selected and provided by the Converter, who has a knowledge of structural designs so that he may plan for appropriate die-cutting. The comps are put forward for the Print Buyer""s amendment and final approval. Several iterations of comp production are almost always necessary before the Print Buyer approves of a final package design. In fact, between fifteen and twenty unique comps are usually prepared for each approved design, with each comp typically costing between $350 and $700.
As with most graphical illustrations, graphic designs for comps are typically created on Apple(trademark) Macintosh(trademark) computers, using industry standard Postscript-based software such as Adobe Illustrator(trademark), Quark Xpress(trademark), Adobe Photoshop(trademark) and Aldus Freehand(trademark). The graphical designs are printed onto paper or similar stock using digital, low-to-medium-quality, inexpensive desktop proofing systems such as ink jet printers. Such proofing systems provide only an approximate representation of colors, forcing Print Buyers to imagine the intended colors and graphical effects for finished packages. Comps are then created manually by laminating these proofs to cardboard, scoring the reverse side of the cardboard along the intended fold lines, and cutting the laminate. In many circumstances, producing comps obviates the need to wet color proof.
In contrast to graphical designs, which are embodied by one or more comps, structural designs are embodied, evaluated and communicated in the form of blank structural samples produced from proposed production material. These structural samples are typically prepared by the Converter, or less often by the Print Buyer, for evaluating structural integrity, mechanical operation, production feasibility and other issues concerning product housing, distribution and display. As with comps, structural samples are usually put forward for the Print Buyer""s review, amendment and final approval, typically after several iterations.
Structural samples are typically designed on PC-compatible workstations, using various industry computer-aided design (CAD) software, such as AutoCAD(trademark) or similar products which are tailored for box design. Designers typically retrieve from extensive software libraries a pre-existing structural design which serves as a model for the structural design of the package. Structural samples are produced using large flat-bed vacuum-holddown tables which cut and crease sheets of work material. Although these samples typically are blank, sample-maker tables are increasingly being used to produce printed structural samples. Converters sometimes use their sample-maker tables to cut and crease material which has been pre-printed or laminated with a pre-printed skin, accepting a surprising degree of inefficiency due to existing registration systems. Some sample-maker tables offer optional ink jet heads for printing. However, the resulting print quality and efficiency is poor, so ink jet heads are for the most part limited to use with corrugated packages, where print quality is less important.
Because packages are printed and die-cut from large sheets or rolls of material, printing plates and steel rule dies must be designed for an optimal production layout which minimizes production costs. Accordingly, after establishing a production-approved structural design, the Converter produces a digital xe2x80x9cnestxe2x80x9d defining a preferred layout. This nest is used in driving equipment which produces a steel rule die, routed countercutters and related tools, and a plotter for plotting an acetate marker. The acetate marker is supplied to the Separator for layout purposes, with all players continuing to play an integral role.
The Separator performs color separations and other prepress operations with assistance from the Graphic Designer and Converter. Generally, Print Buyers and Graphic Designers will change (retouch) an image after it has been scanned. Retouching requires both technical skill and artistry. In addition to traditional retouching methods involving transparencies, it has become common for Separators to do digital retouching on their medium-to-high-quality Color Electronic Prepress Systems (CEPS) and filmiess digital proofing systems, such as a 3M Digital Matchprint(trademark) and Kodak Approval(trademark). Such prepress and proofing systems are often calibrated to match actual press running conditions.
Due to continually improving technology, it is also possible for Graphic Designers to digitally retouch the graphical design on a desktop computer system. Graphic Designers believe that they should, as a minimum, supervise any retouching associated with their design projects. Where low resolution is used, the retouched graphical design serves as only a model for the Separator to use in creating a high resolution graphical design. However, high resolution graphical images may be created if the Graphic Designer is equipped to handle very large digital image files.
Finally, press proofs are made by the Converter using conventional proofing processes and techniques with actual inks on actual substrates. Although high-quality CEPS have the potential to replace press proofing for some applications, conventional press proofs are inapplicable to some projects, such as those requiring special colors. This technique is still commonly used because of the dominance of spot colors and special effects used in packages. While short-run printing of folding carton stock is becoming economically feasible with smaller presses or new digital printing technology, there is a significant demand for short-run production of corrugated displays and folding cartons for special, promotional or test marketing applications.
As is clear from the above description, the process of designing packages is not well automated. In fact, even straight-forward automation of most steps will not alleviate the most significant problems with the process. For example, replacing pen-and-paper with computer graphics software does not reduce the significant delays which result from the collaboration between the parties. It would be advantageous to have a system which completely managed the design of packages.
An object of the present invention is to provide a system for designing a package in which parties may efficiently exchange package design information.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system for designing and creating comprehensive models of a package.
In accordance with the present invention, a comprehensive model design environment for creating a comprehensive model having a graphical design and a structural design comprises at least two design stations and a database. Each design station comprises a graphical design module for generating signals indicative of the graphical design and a structural design module for generating signals indicative of the structural design. The database receives the graphical design and the structural design signals, and generates in accordance therewith an ordered set of signals corresponding to the graphical design and the structural design.